Tech Tips: How to stop Google from storing your recordings from Google Assistant

Virtual Assistant like the Google Assistant, Alexa and Siri have become the heart and soul of our digital lives. Owing to the rising technological prowess of the tech companies, these virtual assistant are not only helping us with seemingly trivial tasks such as playing music and checking whether updates, but also with tasks such as completing our sentences in our emails and making hotel reservations – that are relativley difficult to accomplish, especially for a machine. Despite the complexity of their job, these virtual assistants handle everything flawlessly and with near perfection. The credit for this feat goes to the troves of data that they collect and use to improve upon their interactions with us – the humans.

Needless to say that the amount of data that these tech companies collect during our interactions with their virtual assistants is humongous. But did you know that there is an easy way using which you can stop tech companies from storing recordings of your interactions with their voice assistant?

If you an Android smartphone user or if you own a Google Home smart speaker, here’s how you can stop Google from storing copies of your voice recordings with the Google Assistant:

Via Web

– Go to My Activity page on your laptop or desktop.

– Click on the three dots on the top right corner of the page.

– Tap on Activity Controls option.

– Scroll down to Voice and Audio Activity.

– Now toggle the button.

– Doing so will show you a pop-up window that will warn you of the consequences of turning the feature off.

– If you still don’t want Google to record your secret conversations with the Google Assistant, click on Pause and you are done.

Via Google Assistant app

– Open Google Assistant app on your smartphone.

– Tap on the icon on the bottom left corner to access the home page.

– Now tap on your profile picture and then on Settings option.

– Next, tap on Your Activity in the Assistant option.

– Scroll down to Google-wide Controls and tap on Voice and Audio Activity option.

– A prompt will open the Voice and Audio Activity page.

– Toggle the switch.

– Doing so will show you a pop-up window that will warn you of the consequences of turning the feature off.

– Tap on Pause to stop Google from recording your conversations with Google Assistant and you are good to go!